The greatest gift anyone can give to a writer is time.

I think it is important to reach people through arts and literature, because then you establish a connection that's not an instant crisis.

I see the sharp inequality between how Haitian and Cuban refugees are treated in Florida. Both groups come here because their lives are equally desperate. But on arrival, the Haitians are incarcerated, and some are immediately repatriated, whereas Cubans get to stay and are eligible for citizenship.

It's hard to tell what people will do with the word and how they'll be circulating it but I think the storytellers and the stories themselves will always be there.

When you are working on something, you have to believe that people will still be reading when you're done!

After writing fiction for so long, I like the discovery element of nonfiction, in the sense that when you find the right information, it feels like gold.

There is something human about the way people react to and identify with suffering. There's a lot more empathy in the world than we perhaps realize.